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The thing about media feuds is that, like most conflicts, they rarely stay self-contained. Now the alpha dog throwdown between Don Cherry and Brian Burke has spread to engulf the NHL and CBC.

On Saturday, The Globe and Mail reported that, at last month’s NHL all-star game, a meeting between CBC and the NHL board of governors got heated over two main issues brought forth by representatives of the Canadian teams: Cherry’s criticism of the Leafs’ management and coaching; and a feeling that Hockey Night in Canada is too focused on Toronto. Both may play into CBC’s ability to renew hockey rights after the 2013-14 season.

Cherry opened the door over a week ago, when he accused Burke of going to CBC bosses to get him fired for criticism of the Leafs on Coach’s Corner. Burke has denied this and said he does not want to engage in any further feud with Cherry.

“I can’t speak (for Cherry), but I can say Brian Burke specifically told me: ‘I don’t want the guy fired.’ ” Jeffrey Orridge, head of CBC Sports, said in an interview on Sunday.

Orridge did not dispute what was reported in the Globe piece, but did want to clear the air on some points.

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He said the CBC-NHL meeting — including Orridge and Kirstine Stewart, CBC’s head of English services — did get “spirited” with teams voicing issues, but added that details of the meeting weren’t meant to be made public.

He said the meeting was at commissioner Gary Bettman’s invitation for an update on the CBC-NHL partnership and was in no way an early negotiating session for a rights extension.

“In no way was it a pitch, as has been reported,” Orridge said. “It’s simply ludicrous to suggest that CBC would be engaging in a negotiation at all-star weekend amongst 30 National Hockey League team owners in an open forum. We’ve got rights in our current agreement that don’t expire until the 2013-14 season ends. So it certainly would be premature to engage in those conversations, and certainly that’s not the forum to do it.”

Orridge says there is a specific negotiating window within the existing contract, although he wouldn’t say when that is.

HNIC is hugely important to CBC’s relevance and bottom line. But it’s clear that, despite a 60-year partnership with the NHL, in Canada’s current über-competitive sports media climate both TSN and Sportsnet and their parent companies, Bell and Rogers, are salivating at the prospect of making a play for this country’s highest-rated program, when and if those rights come up.

Although, you have to wonder how Leaf owners Bell and Rogers would deal with these kinds of complaints from other Canadian teams about coverage. If you think CBC is chasing ratings with too much Leafs coverage, can you imagine what a private broadcaster that also owns the team would do?

In reality, the Leafs are the biggest draw on HNIC, whether the team is any good or not. There is an outsized fan presence across the country, even if it does make charges of an East Coast sports bias true. CBC counters that more games from across the country are getting air time, but as regional broadcasts as opposed to the coveted Saturday night feature spot.

Canadians are trained to watch hockey on Saturday nights and that has also meant watching it on CBC. For the past 30 years, that’s also meant seeing Cherry and Ron MacLean. The second part of The Wrath of Grapes TV aired Sunday night, showing that this is far from the first time Cherry has caused problems for CBC, but he has far more supporters than detractors amongst fans across the country.

Networks often fear on-air talent getting too big. It makes it hard to deal with personnel and to be flexible. This is ancient history with Cherry and MacLean.

Both are icons in this country because of their weekly Saturday night pulpit, but the truth is their time is likely coming to an end. Cherry, 78, has said nothing about retiring, but could at any time. As well, if HNIC does move to another network after 2014, it likely won’t want to take the package deal of Cherry and MacLean, particularly if they are causing these types of headaches.

The pair and CBC’s hockey coverage will forever be linked, even if it is a warts-and-all relationship.

Say what you want about Cherry’s irrational and epic rant about Burke that kicked all this off, but one thing is certain: It was awesome television.

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